


stoplights

by spideywhiteys



Series: 365 Days of Naruto AUs [29]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cop AU, Gen, Nerves, first job jitters, indra and izuna are cousins, indra is a good cousin, the uchiha still manage to basically run the police force, writing an uchiha is the most difficult hurdle to overcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:33:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29071827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spideywhiteys/pseuds/spideywhiteys
Summary: Izuna joins the family business. He's not nervous, really.
Relationships: Ootsutsuki Indra & Uchiha Izuna
Series: 365 Days of Naruto AUs [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2086938
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	stoplights

**Author's Note:**

> Day 29: Cop AU / Izuna + Indra

“Are you paying attention?” 

Izuna pulls his gaze away from the car window. “Of course I am.”

His cousin doesn’t look convinced, small brows pulled low over dark eyes. Indra’s face is all straight, pretty angles; like all Uchiha, he is blessed with graceful, elven features and a shadow of tempered steel. His eyes house thunderstorms and crackling fires, as black and twisting as billowing smoke. 

After a beat, the older man continues. “...The route is important to memorize. Every alley and side street. Absolutely no skimping is allowed.”

Even his voice leaves no room for disobedience. There is kindness in Indra, a kindness that all Uchiha house deep in their chests, right beside their fragile hearts. The beating organ is always made of glass, like a genetic disposition, so wall upon wall is thrown up until they are warped with it. 

_ Uchiha are icy, frigid beings. _ The saying is only true to those who have never been loved by one, who have never been exposed to the raging storm hidden under their pale flesh. An inferno that burns every second of the day, tempered by the same walls housing their hearts. Izuna knows his family to be the most pointed, wrathful and consuming in their love. 

Indra talks too much about regulations and maintaining power, but Izuna also knows that his cousin would turn in his badge and slit his own belly before allowing one of his precious family members to die.

Such is the life of an Uchiha.

Izuna leans against the door, his cheek pressed to the cool window. He watches the world pass by behind a layer of bullet-proof glass. The uniform he wears is crisp, all hard lines and stiff fabric, telling of his new position. It feels odd sometimes, being an adult with a job — especially a job like this. The weight of responsibility is a heavy one, carving wrinkles into older Uchiha as they strain and stress and stand firm, Atlas under the world. This is Izuna’s future, and he’s chosen it himself not just because it’s a family business, but because he wants to carve his name into the underbelly of the crimeworld. He wants to use that writhing flame beneath his skin to shine a light into the shadows. 

_ Maybe the Uchiha are better suited to be firefighters, _ he thinks wryly. Pyromania is not exclusive to him.

But it’s a lot sometimes, the expectations of his family. Those on top of the world bearing down upon his slender form is not one he feels he can take forever — though he will never cease trying, it’s simply not in his nature to give up. His older brother expects a lot, though he expresses this with small actions rather than words, and he’d never truly fault Izuna if he failed. That unwavering belief, however, makes Izuna all the more terrified to do so.

He sighs.

“Am I boring you?” Indra’s dry tone cracks through the silence like a whip.

“Ah, no.” Izuna clears his throat, briefly meeting Indra’s piercing gaze, a gazelle before a lion. If he is a spitfire, Indra is the oil slick across the cement, waiting for a single spark to set it off. The panther shifting in the shadows, the proud lion standing over them all — Izuna looks up to his cousin so it’s not as though he fears the terrible, aching maw of  _ something _ that sits in his elder cousin’s eyes. He acknowledges it, because that same  _ something _ is growing within him. It lurks in the back of his head.

Indra pulls over at the designated intersection, parking their vehicle in full view of the road. He looks considering — a subtle expression only known by the flatness of his mouth. There’s no sure emotion on his countenance when he speaks, just the smoldering, infinite dark of his eyes where something dangerous lies.

“Nerves do not become you.”

Izuna huffs at the archaic way of speech, locked in a car but not feeling caged. “I’m not nervous.”

“Good.” Indra murmurs with the slightest incline of his head. He looks beyond their windshield to the traffic speeding along in intervals. Red. Yellow. Green. “Because you have no reason to be.”

Izuna looks to his cousin with no small amount of shock, but Indra isn’t paying attention to him anymore — or at least pretending not to. He turns away as well, out to the building sea of cars. His little glass heart trembles with the overwhelming swell of Uchiha patented emotion. In their family of few words, that simple sentence contains a wealth of support. Izuna looks more firmly out his window, unable to wipe the petal-soft grin from his lips.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow / Support me on [Tumblr](https://spideyfoof.tumblr.com/) and let me know if you'd like to see more of this AU!


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